CIA Director Leon Panetta stomped on the White House’s political script when he told Tuesday night’s broadcast of NBC Nightly News that the waterboarding of jihadi detainees contributed information that led to the location and killing of Osama bin Laden.

“We had multiple series of sources that provided information with regards to this situation… clearly some of it came from detainees [and] they used these enhanced interrogation techniques against some of those detainees,” he told NBC anchor Brian Williams.

When asked by Williams if water-boarding was part of the “enhanced interrogation techniques,” Panetta simply said “that’s correct.”

Throughout the day, White House officials had pushed back at claims that water-boarding or other enhanced interrogation techniques produced the information that eventually led to Osama bin Laden.

“The fact is that no single piece of information led to the successful mission,” White House spokesman Carney told reporters at Tuesday’s White House press conference. He also said that administration officials are not reconsidering the administration’s opposition to tougher interrogation practices. There is “no change whatsoever,” he said.

Several former Bush administration officials previously told TheDC that there’s persuasive evidence that the intelligence surrounding bin Laden’s location stemmed from enhanced interrogation of 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed or other terror suspects at CIA black sites around the world.

Data from tough interrogations has been integrated with information that emerged from softer interrogations at Guantanamo Bay.

But several Democratic-affiliated constituencies are fiercely opposed to enhanced interrogations. They include much of the legal bar, progressive groups such as the Center for Constitutional Rights, and anti-war groups. Obama courted all three groups during the 2008 election.

Attorney General Eric Holder followed Carney’s script at a House Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday morning. There “was a mosaic of sources that led to the identification of people who led” authorities to bin Laden, he said, when asked about the role of tough interrogation. When Rep. Dan Lungren, California Republican, asked Holder if any pieces of that mosaic of sources were a result of enhanced interrogation techniques, Holder evaded the question, saying he wasn’t sure.

“Multiple detainees provided insights,” Carney told reporters Tuesday afternoon. “Reporting from detainees is a slice of the information that has been gathered by incredibly diligent specialists over the years in the intelligence community, and it simply strains credulity to suggest that a piece of information that may nor may not have been gathered eight years ago somehow directly led to the successful mission on Sunday,” he said.

“That’s just not the case.”

Carney did not explicitly reject the claim that tough interrogations provided the first clue – reportedly, the nickname of bin Laden’s personal courier – that seems to have indirectly and eventually led to bin Laden’s hideout.

During the House hearing, Lungren asked Holder if the mission against bin Laden would have been illegal, if any of the intelligence regarding his whereabouts came from enhanced interrogation. Holder evaded the legal question by using a tortured response, saying “I think that, in terms of the attenuation between those acts that might have been problematic and the action that was taken just two days ago I think was sufficiently long so that the action would still be considered legal.”

In his NBC interview where he said water-boarding was used in the interrogations that provided the data, Panetta did leave his colleagues in the administration a political fig-leaf. “Whether we would have gotten the same information through other approaches,” he said, “I think is always going to be an open question."

Story (http://dailycaller.com/2011/05/03/torturous-evasions/#ixzz1LMnOboe1)

Moonbats are going to need to revise their talking points.

txradioguy

05-04-2011, 04:28 AM

Moonbats are going to need to revise their talking points.

Even worse....our little Obama fanboy A_D is gonna have to revise HIS! :eek:

Bailey

05-04-2011, 08:03 AM

I hear heads as'ploding from DU from here :D

NJCardFan

05-04-2011, 11:05 AM

They'll spin it. Apparently the waterboarding happened while Bush was still in office so they'll spin it that the waterboarding didn't get anything concrete and that Obama offering unicorns and rainbows(can't say puppies because puppies are offensive to muslims) is what led to the more pertinent information.

KhrushchevsShoe

05-04-2011, 01:31 PM

Waterboarding is not what led us to OBL. It was hard work and dedication in the intelligence community that remained constant over a grueling 9 years that pulled this off. You cant just dunk somebodies' head and magically find OBL, it takes using whatever information you get out of them and making the most of it by following every single lead that nets you a key piece of information that makes this happen.

Making this about torture is more about trying to turn this into a "WE WON" moment for one political side.

Bailey

05-04-2011, 01:36 PM

Waterboarding is not what led us to OBL. It was hard work and dedication in the intelligence community that remained constant over a grueling 9 years that pulled this off. You cant just dunk somebodies' head and magically find OBL, it takes using whatever information you get out of them and making the most of it by following every single lead that nets you a key piece of information that makes this happen.

Making this about torture is more about trying to turn this into a "WE WON" moment for one political side.

So you say it didnt lead us to him in one breath but then you said in another the info we got started on the path to him :confused:

No shit it wasn't an end all be all but it HELPED YOU ASSHOLE and your side said it wasnt helpful at all to do it. So make your mind up

KhrushchevsShoe

05-04-2011, 01:39 PM

So you say it didnt lead us to him in one breath but then you said in another the info we got started on the path to him :confused:

No shit it wasn't an end all be all but it HELPED YOU ASSHOLE and your side said it wasnt helpful at all to do it. So make your mind up

I believe I said waterboarding was not soley responsible for finding him, which seems to be the narrative floating around now.

Your side, my side... I dont care. You're the one who's more concerned with winning that game.

Bailey

05-04-2011, 01:43 PM

I believe I said waterboarding was not soley responsible for finding him, which seems to be the narrative floating around now.

Your side, my side... I dont care. You're the one who's more concerned with winning that game.

Nope wrong again I am sick and tired of assholes like obama who take credit for things that they bashed at every turn (CIA,waterboarding, military etc) then when it helps him he is ok with it. :mad:

If not for that piece of info recived via waterboarding would they have found him?

“Enhanced interrogation techniques” were used to extract information that led to the mission’s success, Panetta said during an interview with anchor Brian Williams. Those techniques included waterboarding, he acknowledged.

Panetta, who in a 2009 CIA confirmation hearing declared “waterboarding is torture and it’s wrong,” said Tuesday that debate about its use will continue.

“Whether we would have gotten the same information through other approaches I think is always gonna be an open question,” Panetta said.

djones520

05-04-2011, 02:11 PM

Dude... twice in two days. Stand by while I merge.

PoliCon

05-04-2011, 02:15 PM

Dude... twice in two days. Stand by while I merge.

Different links - different stories. Mine has video. :p

Starbuck

05-04-2011, 03:43 PM

Hard to tell what going on with the Obama folks.....

I suspect that the "guys who know" wanted to use waterboarding, which is harmless but scary, and are using this case as leverage to get the general go-ahead from voters. That's a good idea! Pretend to be opposed to it, so that you can gather up the pinhead vote and then have someone casually mention that it has been used to gather the independents in. The pinheads will blame it on Bush and vote for Obama. The independents will fall for it, too; they'll think it's being used all along and some of them will vote for Obama again.

But I won't.

Adam Wood

05-04-2011, 04:28 PM

I believe I said waterboarding was not soley responsible for finding him, which seems to be the narrative floating around now.

Your side, my side... I dont care. You're the one who's more concerned with winning that game.Oh fer fux sake! In what dreamworld of yours is that happening?

I have yet to come across anyone who has said only waterboarding led us to bin Laden, and nothing else was at all involved. What stupid shit you spew! Waterboarding was part of what led us there.

Hawkgirl

05-04-2011, 05:20 PM

Oh fer fux sake! In what dreamworld of yours is that happening?

I have yet to come across anyone who has said only waterboarding led us to bin Laden, and nothing else was at all involved. What stupid shit you spew! Waterboarding was part of what led us there.

Sometimes you have to break it down for the libs...

Zathras

05-04-2011, 05:32 PM

Sometimes you have to break it down for the libs...

And then, when that doesn't work, I suggest using a baseball bat to the skull to drive the point home. Because, if they're that stupid, only a good solid piece of wood applied forcefully to the skull is the only way to make them learn.